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St. John's takes command early against Leominster

Sentinel & Enterprise

Updated:
04/22/2014 09:51:01 PM EDT

LEOMINSTER -- If you want to be the best, you have to play the best.

That was the reasoning behind Leominster scheduling St. John's during the regular season and the Pioneers lived up to the billing as one of the best lacrosse programs around. St. John's took an 8-0 lead after the first quarter and never looked back in a commanding 13-3 victory over the Blue Devils Tuesday night at Doyle Field.

Leominster dips to 4-2 on the season, while St. John's remains undefeated, improving to an impressive 7-0.

"We didn't give up," Leominster head coach Colin Davis said. "We knew that they were a great team. We wanted to test ourselves against the best and they are the third ranked team in the state for a reason. They played great, although I think we played with a little bit more poise in the second half. We wanted to get a look at them because we have a feeling that we'll see them down the road."

The game marked a rematch from last year's opening round Central Mass tournament game, and St. John's left little doubt early about a possible alternate ending from the last meeting.

The Pioneers outshot the Blue Devils 20-3 in the opening half, and held Leominster to no shots on goal.

St. John's junior Parker Jean scored three goals in a row during the halfway point of the first quarter and finished the game with four goals and an assist. Nifty movement and feeds led to a slew of goals in the first quarter, which ended with a goal by Connor Maloney to make it 8-0.

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"I told the guys to be aware of them coming out and being physical and athletic," St. John's head coach Terry Leary said. "They play an aggressive style of defense and we took advantage of it in the first quarter. We were trying to make them slide to one of the players that initiated and move the ball with a couple passes and find someone open. We found (Jean) on the back a couple times."

Leominster trailed 10-0 at the half, but attack Hector Delgado registered a goal seven seconds into the third quarter, on an all-out hustle play with a shot from about 12 yards out, which chopped the deficit back down to single digits.

"(Delgado) is an animal, he's one of the toughest kids on the team," Davis said. "He works hard on a face-offs, is tough on defense, and does all the little things, even though he might not get the credit every game. We have to have him, he's a core guy."

Jean responded with his fourth goal of the game on a transition play with 4:27 on the clock, making it 11-1 after three.

St. John's tallied two markers in the first three minutes of the fourth, triggering running time, but Leominster was able to even things out from there, taking advantage of two man-up situations.

Andrew Bouchard scored the team's second goal with 7:05 left on a deep bullet, then with 4:36 left Bouchard fed Kenny Delgado, and he ripped home a shot from 10 yards out.

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